Britain proscribed Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation on 13 July 2026, making it a criminal offence to belong to the group, attend its meetings, or carry its logo in public. The designation was made under new powers introduced through the National Security Act, citing IRGC activity involving threats to life and intimidation on UK soil. The Iran-linked Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right (IMCR) was simultaneously proscribed, with the government stating it 'almost certainly' directed recent attacks against the Jewish community in London.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood led the designation. Security Minister Dame Angela Eagle issued the written statement on her behalf, describing the IRGC as a central component of the Iranian state's security apparatus, answerable directly to Iran's Supreme Leader. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the new powers will make it easier to prosecute and lock up anyone carrying out the groups' activities in Britain. Members of the banned organisations could face sentences up to life imprisonment, with the emergency legislation pending Parliament's approval.
The IRGC was already subject to British sanctions prior to the proscription, having been established as an elite military force loyal to the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Much of the western world had outlawed the IRGC before the UK — the United States designated it a terrorist organisation in 2019, becoming the first country to apply such a designation to an official state body, prompting Iran to designate the US military in response. Canada and Australia followed, and the European Union added its own designation in February 2026 [Source: Global Banking and Finance].
The UK decision had been a subject of political discussion for some time. In March 2026, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch offered cross-party support to pass legislation proscribing the IRGC following the Golders Green attack, in which four Jewish community ambulances were set on fire. The proscription comes against a broader backdrop of regional tension: drone strikes hit shipping near the Strait of Hormuz on 7 July 2026, with Brent crude touching around $74 a barrel in response. UK diesel and petrol prices had been falling in the period leading up to the announcement, as the RAC described an Iran war inflation shock unwinding.
No publicly traded instruments have been reported by major newswires as directly affected by the proscription itself, which is a national-security and legal designation rather than a sanctions package targeting listed corporate counterparties.
Sources: Reuters, BBC News, LBC, GB News, Al-Monitor, Middle East Eye, Global Banking and Finance, Bloomberg